Agenda and minutes

Councillor Sexton and Councillor Gail Sleigh (Councillor Gibbin – substitute)

To receive declarations of interest from Members.

There were no declarations of interest. 

To answer any questions, if any asked by any resident of the Borough pursuant to Standing Orders.

There were no questions or deputations. 

For the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Board to consider the University Hospital Birmingham Quality Account for 2021-22.

The Chief Strategy and Project Officer invited Members to consider University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) Quality Account. He detailed how the Scrutiny Board had previously been invited to provide a statement on the Quality Account, prior to publication in May – the points raised included the following:

·  The continued role out of the Trust’s Prescribing Information and Communication System (PICS) was welcomed, with it supporting many improvements in quality of care.

·  It was noted that, as part of the Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) Index, UHB was performing below the national average for the questions posed in the NHS Staff Survey.

·  It was queried why electronic wristband identity checks before administration of medication for Solihull Hospital were lower when compared with the other Hospital sites.

·  The Board had noted the results of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections, where Birmingham Heartlands Hospital had received an overall rating of inadequate for its Urgent and Emergency Care service.

The Chief Strategy and Project Officer explained that the FTSU index was a national NHS survey, which allowed benchmarking against a range of other participating NHS organisations. It was detailed how the FTSU index included other Acute Providers of variable size and well as other types of Trusts, including Community Health Trusts.

It was outlined how Freedom to Speak Up had been retained as a major priority for UHB, in recognition of the crucial role of staff. The Chief Strategy and Project Officer detailed the role of UHB’s Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, who was supported by 23 Confidential Contacts from across the Trust who were also a point of contact for raising concerns. Members were also informed of a variety of ways that UHB staff could contact the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and the Confidential Contacts.

The Chief Strategy and Project Officer explained that, in regards to electronic wristband identify checks, performance across all Trust sites was at 81% and they were looking to improve on this further. He detailed how, at Solihull Hospital, there had been focus upon addressing a number of infrastructure and hardware issues, which should improve performance going forward.

In regards to the CQC ratings outlined in the Quality Account, the Chief Strategy and Project Officer detailed how these inspections were undertaken in October 2021, during the second wave of the pandemic, when admissions were rising. He explained how an action plan had been developed following the inspection, with 16 key actions identified and he outlined the progress made. These actions were monitored by the Clinical Governance Team on a monthly basis, and reported to the Board of Directors on a quarterly basis.

Members raised a number of queries and observations which, in summary, included the following:

·  A Member highlighted how Improving diabetes management was being discontinued as a priority for 2022-23. They noted how there had been instances of automated referrals to the Diabetes team being missed and queried how there would be continued focus on diabetes management going forward.

·  The Chief Strategy and Project Officer confirmed there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.